Means for temporarily presetting interlocking elements of combination lock-type container finish closure and method for assembling same

ABSTRACT

In combination with a cylindrical container &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;finish&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; or spout and closure therefor, wherein the latter is securable against removal from the &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;finish&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; or spout by a plurality of interlocking projections and recesses, at least some of which are movable circularly relative to the axis of the &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;finish&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; cylinder and to the others of said projections and recesses by means of annular elements associated therewith, and also rotatable relative to the cylinder axis, where the closure may be placed on the container &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;finish&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; or spout, or removed therefrom only when the annular elements are disposed in certain predetermined positions in which the projections and recesses fall in register; a yieldable composition applied to the projections or recesses prior to the closure being placed upon the &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;finish&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; or spout and with the projections and recesses being so in register. This composition, an exemplar of which may be paraffin, should have sufficient rigidity to retain the projections or recesses so in register against inadvertent movement of of register through mishandling, shaking or jarring during shipment or handling, but must, nevertheless be rupturable upon the rotation of such annular elements by the application of modest force thereto, such as manually, to effect rotation thereof; whereupon such composition, upon thereby being ruptured, thereafter serves as a lubricant to facilitate rotation of the annular elements and movement of the projections and recesses relative to each other. The invention also includes a method for using such a composition in assembly operations.

United States Patent [191 Levey 1 Aug. 13, 1974 Inventor: John Levey, 4059 Mariners Cir.,

Westlake Village, Calif. 91361 Filed: Mar. 29, 1972 Appl. No.: 239,287

[52] US. Cl 53/15, 53/38, 215/9,

215/98 Int. Cl. B65b 7/28, B65d 55/00 Field of Search 53/15, 38, 41-43;

[56] References Cited I UNITED STATES PATENTS 6/1972 Drew et al. 215/9 8/1972 Leopoldi et al 215/9 Primary Examiner-Robert L. Spruill Attorney, Agent, or FirmSmyth, Roston & Pavitt [5 7 ABSTRACT In combination with a cylindrical container finish or spout and closure therefor, wherein the latter is securable against removal from the finish or spout by a plurality of interlocking projections and recesses, at least some of which are movable circularly relative to the axis of the finish cylinder and to the others of said projections and recesses by means of annular elements associated therewith, and also rotatable relative to the cylinder axis, where the closure may be placed on the container finish or spout, or removed therefrom only when the annular elements are disposed in certain predetermined positions in which the projections and recesses fall in register; a yieldable composition applied to the projections or recesses prior to the closure being placed upon the finish or spout and with the projections and recesses being so in register. This composition, an exemplar of which may be paraffin, should have sufficient rigidity to retain the projections or recesses so in register against inadvertent movement of of register through mishandling, shaking or jarring during shipment or handling, but must, nevertheless be rupturable upon the rotation of such an- 4 nular elements by the application of modest force thereto, such as manually, to effect rotation thereof; whereupon such composition, upon thereby being ruptured, thereafter serves as a lubricant to facilitate rotation of the annular elements and movement of the projections and recesses relative to each other. The invention also includes a method for using such a composition in assembly operations,

5 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures (app/'07 .674 f0 MEANS FOR TEMPORARILY PRESE'ITING INTERLOCKING ELEMENTS OF COMBINATION LOCK-TYPE CONTAINER FINISH CLOSURE AND METHOD FOR ASSEMBLING SAME BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION the locking of closures on containers, where the clo- 2O sures may only be removed by the user knowing or ascertaining a proper unlocking combination.

A century ago the principal concern of the owners of v the containers apparently was to prevent the uninvited sampling of their spirituous liquors. In more recent times, however, the general and more important concern is to prevent small children or absent-minded adults from obtaining access to, and ingesting: (a) the contents of containers of medicines, which may be toxic if taken by the wrong persons;-and/or in the wrong amounts; or (b) the contents of many liquids or compounds which are not intended for internal use and, hence, may be highly toxic to an individual if taken in any amount. Such more recent concern has assumed considerable importance in the present day drug-oriented society, and with ever increasing numbers of toxic compounds which are made available to householders for insect and other pest and weed control, plant fertilization, painting, cleaning and other domestic uses.

Despite the great need for, and availability of, the numerous combination-lock closure devices which the thus-patented art has disclosed to be available for adoption by manufacturers who package their products in containers utilizing closures, none of such combination-lock' closure devices appears yet to have been widely or extensively adopted and utilized.

This failure on the part of industry to utilize any of the prior art devices would appear to be attributable to one or more of the following facts:

1. The locking devices which have been the subject of patents granted within the'last few decades are quite complex and difficult to manufacture;

2. Because of their complexity, their cost of manufacture is probably out of line with respect to either or both of the containers and items packaged by the latter;

3. Manufacturers may hesitate to adopt the simpler devices of long expired patents, since they know that once they may successfully introduce such devices, other may copy them;

4. In rapid, present-day container assembly and filling operations, a manufacturer cannot afford the time it takes a worker to locate the proper setting of the combination and to lock and set it to enable the closure to be placed on the container after the lattter is filled; and then to reset it for locking.

This last reason is undoubtedly the most important, since most packaging and filling operations today in the United States, as well as in the major industrial countries of the World are completely automated and proceed at extraordinarily high rates of speed, e. g., as much as 600 per minute. Thus, unless all the locking closures which are brought into a high rate packaging line to cap containers have their annular locking rings perfectly set so that each cap may be quickly brought down onto the container finish or spout and then their rings twisted to effect locking a costly interruption of the production line will result. However, even if the rings are initially set when the closures are manufactured, unless they are tightly fitted against other contacting parts of the cap (and such tight fitting could itself greatly increase the cost of manufacture of the cap), the probabilities are high that with subsequent handling, shipment and further handling of the caps before they are applied to the containers, their rings will shake out of, or otherwise be shifted from,

their initially set alignment. The caps will then have to be inspected and possibly reset in order that they will fit onto the container finishes-or spouts. This introduces a high labor cost into the operation and slows down the assembly process to quite an unacceptable rate.

Thus, the prior art devices have remained generally as only the subject of paper patents which, although attesting to the ingenuities of their respective progenitors in devising variations from the earliest closure locks, have lacked the tribute of adoption and use by industry anywhere in the World.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to overcoming the problems which thus appear to have prevented manufacturers from extensively adopting any of the prior art devices for capping containers of their products particularly where such containers are filled at high production rates. It is utilizable with any of the many different types of combination-lock container finish or spout and closure arrangements.

Essentially, the present invention would be applicable to any combination of a container finish or spout and closure therefor, wherein the finish is cylindrical in configuration and the closure therefor is securable against removal from the finish by a plurality of interlocking projections and recesses, at least some of which are movable circularly relative to the axis of the finish" cylinder and to others of such projections and recesses by means of annular elements associated therewith and also rotatable relative to the axis. In such a finish-closure combination, the closure may be placed on the finish and removed therefrom only when the annular elements are disposed in predetermined positions in which positions the projections and recesses are in register. The present invention contemplates applying to such projections or recesses when they are so in register and prior to assembling the closure and the finish or spout, a yieldable composition, such as paraffin, which, upon hardening, serves temporarily to retain such projections and recesses in register against movement therefrom through inadvertent mishandling, shaking or jarring during shipment and handling before assembly. Such composition, however, should be of such nature and constituency that it may be ruptured by rotation of the annular elements,

thereby moving the projections and recesses out of register; and after being so ruptured, the composition will serve as a lubricant to facilitate rotation of the annular elements and movement of said projections and recesses relative to each other.

Where the present invention is to be employed to lock the finish or spout of containers of any type of food or drink for human or animal consumption, the composition should also obviously be itself non-toxic. Paraffin also qualifies in this respect.

Thus, the present invention enables one to utilize the simplest and least expensive types of combination-lock caps in the rapid mass production capping of containers, thereby obviating the principal reasons why such caps have not heretofore been widely employed as closures for containers of toxic materials or solutions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the accompanying drawings,

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of one embodiment of the neck of a bottle enclosure to which the present invention is applicable.

FIG. 2 is a section taken on the line 2'2 of FIG. '1.

FIG. 3 is an exploded view in perspective partly cutting away of the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 4 is a different bottle neck enclosure embodiment to which the invention is applicable.

FIG. 4a is a partial perspective view of the projecting areas of the annular elements and cap when the projections are in register.

FIG. 5 is a section taken on the line 5-5 of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is an exploded view of the container neck and closure combination shown in FIGS. 4 and 5.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the cap of the FIGS. l-3 embodiment with the cap in inverted position.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of the method of the resent invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As hereinabove stated, the present invention may have utility with almost any of the many different types of container-locking closure combinations which have heretofore been devised, including most of those illustrated and described in the prior art patents listed hereinabove. The embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 1, 2, 3, and 7 of the accompanying drawings, represents a particularly suitable combination of finish or spout-andclosure for the application of the present invention.

Thus, in these last mentioned drawing figures, there is shown the upper portion 10 of a bottle type container having a cylindrical finish" or spout 12 which defines the opening 14 into the container. A pair of short rectangular projections 16, 18 extend radially outwardly from the cylindrical finish" or spout 12. These projections 16, 18 may be spaced axially from each other by a distance approximating their heights.

The closure 20 comprises a head 22, shown in this embodiment to be hexagonal, from the center of which head projects downwardly and coaxially therewith a cylinder 24 preferably molded integrally with the cap head 22. The lower end of this cylinder 24 may be circumscribed by a groove 26 into which will snap a locking rib 28 extending radially inwardly near the bottom of a capping cylinder 30. The latter, which may be molded of a plastic material, such as polyethylene, has an inside diameter slightly greater than the outside diameter of the cylinder 24, a transverse bottom wall 32 and a plurality of circumscribing ribs 34, 34a, and 34b spaced axially from each other to inhibit passage of fluid out of the container finish 12 when the closure 20 is pushed down on the finish 12. Further, in order to prevent leakage from the closure 20, a sealing ring 36, of cork or similar resilient material, is packed into an annular channel 38 formed between the upper part of the wall of the cylinder 24 and a cylindrical wall 40 formed initially by a downwardly extending base portion 42 of the hexagonal cap head 22. The wall 40, however, extends axially down below the base portion 42 to constitute another cylinder 44 about which are rotatably received a pair of annular elements 46, 47, having numerical indicia 48. The elements are held onto the surface of the cylinder 44 by an annular flange 50 cemented to the bottom end 52 of the cylinder 44.

The wall of the cylinder 44 is slotted axially at 54 sufficiently to allow the projections 16, 18, to pass therethrough for a short radial distance as well as to move axially therethrough, and the flange 50 is notched or recessed at 56 in axial alignment with the slot 54. The inside wall 49 of each of the annular elements 46, 47, defines a channel 46a, 47a, respectively. Each of said channels is dimensioned slidably to receive a projection 16 or 18, and each inside wall 49 is further notched at 46b, 47b, respectively, a sufficient arcuate distance to permit each said projection 16, 18, to move axially through the notch and out of each channel 46a, 47a.

The hexagonal head 22 bears a triangular marker 58. When the closure 20 is assembled, it may be seen that only when the annular elements 46, 47, are rotated to positions where their numerical indicia 48 falling immediately below the marker 58, are 2 and 9 respectively. In such positions, it may be seen that the two notches 46b, 47b in the respective ribs 46a, 47a are in axial alignment with recess 56 in the annular flange member 50, so that when the closure 20 is placed upon the finish or spout 12, the projections 16, 18 may pass axially through the recess 56 and both notches 46b, 47b, to allow the closure to be seated upon the spout to cap it. Locking may then be effected by simply rotating the annular elements 46, 47 to some point where their notches 46b, 47b in their ribs 46a, 47a respectively are no longer in register.

According to the present invention, as schematically shown in FIG. 8, at the time and place where the closures are being assembled, the notches 46b, 47b are brought into register with each other and recess 56 in the flange member 50, as each closure is completed, and they are then secured in such position of register by inserting therein a plug 60 of a malleable and rupturable composition, such as paraffin, into the orifice 62, constituted of the registered recess 56 and notches 46b, 47b. Because the plug of paraffin 60 is malleable, it may be pushed into the orifice formed by the notches and will allow itself to be forced into cracks emanating from the orifice and thereby better retain itself in the orifice 62. Desirably, the paraffin plug should be softened, as by heating mildly at the time it is being thus inserted. Then it may be cooled somewhat to effect a degree of hardening. The paraffin plug should effectively retain the notches 46b, 47b in register with the recess after their being assembled.

As an alternative to inserting a paraffin plug 60, it is possible sufficiently to hold the notches 46b, 47b in the desired'registering position by injecting hot paraffin 60 into the orifice 62 in the form of a drop or spray which will immediately harden upon contacting the areas of the elements 46, 47, comprising the walls defining the notches 46b, 47b respectively. The elements 46, 47, may be specially pre-cooled to accelerate hardening of this liquid paraffin 60. Even though such liquid injection of paraffin may not completely fill the orifice 62, it should be quite adequate when hardened to hold the notches 46b, 47b in register against movement out of register which might be occasioned by normal shaking and jarring.

At the time the closures 20 are to be applied to cap the filled containers, after the closures 20 are aligned and are to be moved onto the container finish or spouts l2, desirably at least that part of each closure in which the paraffin plug 60 or drop 60' is seated, should be subjected to some type of rapid mild heating, as for example, by an infra-red heating element. Such heating should soften the paraffin plug 60 or drop 60' sufficiently to permit it easily to be ruptured by the projections l6, 18 when the closure 20 is pressed down upon the finish or spout 12 and twisted to effect locking on the spout as shown in FIG. 8F. Thereafter, the ruptured paraffin plug or drop will serve as a lubricant for the annular elements 46, 47 in their further relative movement with respect to the projections l6, 18.

In the variation of the locking closure illustrated in FIGS. 4, 4a,-5 and 6, the finish or spout 12 is provided with ribs 64, 66, which are notched at 64a, 66a, in alignment with each other. The closure. 20 itself comprises an outer cylindrical housing 68, having a window 70 which receives rotatable annular elements 72, 74, having numerical indicia 76. Each of these elements 72, 74 has a radially inwardly extending projection 726, 740 respectively, which, when properly disposed with respect to the finish or spout 12' will fit into and pass axially through the notches 64a, 66a in the ribs 64, 66 of the "finish" or spout 12'. The annular elements 72, 74 may be retained within the housing 68 by means of an annular flange 78 which may be cemented to the bottom edge 80 of the housing 68. This flange 78 may also be provided with a projection 82 corresponding to projections 72a, 74a on the elements 72, 74 respectively.

It will be appreciated that in the FIGS. 4-6 locking closure combination, the closure 20' may be placed on or removed from the finish or spout 12 only when the projections 72a, 74a and 82 are disposed in register and axially aligned with the notches 64a, 66a in the ribs 64, 66 of the spout neck. In this type of combinationlocking closure, registry of the projections 72a, 74a, 82

may be retained by means of a patch 84 of paraffin applied to the three projections [See FIG 4(a)]. Here, again, desirably, this application should be accomplished with the paraffin warmed sufficiently to be in a very malleable state, if not dropped or sprayed on in hot liquid state as in the FIGS. 1, 2, 3 and 7 embodiment. Also, when the closure is applied to the spout, it may facilitate passage of the projections 72a, 74a, 82 into the notches 64a, 66a and rotation of the elements 72, 74 if the paraffin should be mildly warmed and thereby softened. I

I claim:

1. The method of manufacturing a combination of a container spout and cap wherein the cap is secured to the spout by interlocking projections and recesses, at least some of which are movable relative to the others by means of rotatable annular elements associated therewith, wherein the placing of the cap on the spout and its removal therefrom can be accomplished only when said rotatable annular elements associated with interlocking projections and recesses of the said combination are set in a predetermined position wherein said projections or recesses are placed in register, said method comprising:

a. before assembling said spout and cap so presetting said annular elements;

b. applying a yieldable composition to retain said projections or recesses in such register, said composition being rupturable upon the application of modest force applied to rotate said elements from such predetermined position, said composition thereupon thereafter serving as a lubricant for said elements, projections and recesses associated therewith;

c. placing the cap on the spout; and

d. rotating said elements from said predetermined position so as to rupture said composition and to secure said cap against removal until said elements shall again be set in said predetermined position.

2. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the yieldable composition is paraffin in a malleable state and it is applied by pressing it against said elements while in register.

3. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the yieldable composition is paraffin in a hot liquid state and it is applied by spraying or injecting it on the said elements and then cooled to a relatively hardened state.

4. In a container spout and closure therfor, said spout being cylindrical in configuration and said closure being securable against removal from the spout by a plurality of interlocking projections and recesses, at

least some of which are movable circularly relative to the axis of the spout cylinder and tothe others of said projections and recesses by means of annular elements associated therewith and also rotatable relative to said axis, said closure being placeable on said spout and removable therefrom only wnen said annular elements are disposed in predetermined positions in which positions said projections and recesses are in register; a yieldable composition applied to said projections or recesses prior to said closure being placed upon said spout and with said projections and recesses being so in register, said composition having sufficient rigidity to retain said projections or recesses so in register against inadvertent movement through shaking or jarring during shipment or handling, but said composition being rupturable upon the rotation of said elements by apply.- ing modest force thereto, such as manually, to effect rotation thereof, whereupon said composition, upon thereby being ruptured, thereafter serves as a lubricant to facilitate rotation of said annular elements and movement of said projections and recesses relative to each other.

said claim 4, wherein said composition is parafin. 

1. The method of manufacturing a combination of a container spout and cap wherein the cap is secured to the spout by interlocking projections and recesses, at least some of which are movable relative to the others by means of rotatable annular elements associated therewith, wherein the placing of the cap on the spout and its removal therefrom can be accomplished only when said rotatable annular elements associated with interlocking projections and recesses of the said combination are set in a predetermined position wherein said projections or recesses are placed in register, said method comprisinG: a. before assembling said spout and cap so presetting said annular elements; b. applying a yieldable composition to retain said projections or recesses in such register, said composition being rupturable upon the application of modest force applied to rotate said elements from such predetermined position, said composition thereupon thereafter serving as a lubricant for said elements, projections and recesses associated therewith; c. placing the cap on the spout; and d. rotating said elements from said predetermined position so as to rupture said composition and to secure said cap against removal until said elements shall again be set in said predetermined position.
 2. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the yieldable composition is paraffin in a malleable state and it is applied by pressing it against said elements while in register.
 3. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the yieldable composition is paraffin in a hot liquid state and it is applied by spraying or injecting it on the said elements and then cooled to a relatively hardened state.
 4. In a container spout and closure therfor, said spout being cylindrical in configuration and said closure being securable against removal from the spout by a plurality of interlocking projections and recesses, at least some of which are movable circularly relative to the axis of the spout cylinder and to the others of said projections and recesses by means of annular elements associated therewith and also rotatable relative to said axis, said closure being placeable on said spout and removable therefrom only wnen said annular elements are disposed in predetermined positions in which positions said projections and recesses are in register; a yieldable composition applied to said projections or recesses prior to said closure being placed upon said spout and with said projections and recesses being so in register, said composition having sufficient rigidity to retain said projections or recesses so in register against inadvertent movement through shaking or jarring during shipment or handling, but said composition being rupturable upon the rotation of said elements by applying modest force thereto, such as manually, to effect rotation thereof, whereupon said composition, upon thereby being ruptured, thereafter serves as a lubricant to facilitate rotation of said annular elements and movement of said projections and recesses relative to each other.
 5. In a container spout and closure therefor, as described in claim 4, the composition as also described in said claim 4, wherein said composition is parafin. 